this Matter I should be silent but observing the Nature of this National Mischief of exporting Wooll and the necessity of preventing it that the greatest Strength of the Nation in People the greatest Power upon the Seas in Shipping the greatest Revenues of his Majesty being his Customs do all arise from Clothing And considering these great Advantages are endeavour'd to be gained from us by a powerful Neighbour abroad while some at home are not only reasoning but appear in Print for it and others despairing upon a preposest opinion that all endeavours to recover our selves will be rendred fruitless and vain The consideration whereof hath prompted me to use the utmost of my little Skill that the threatned Ruine of all may be prevented and some good part of that which is lost may be recovered I shall therefore in this Discourse relate very little more than Matter of Fact the Wooll of England before King Edward the 3d's time was always of great accompt and esteem abroad sufficiently testified by the great Amity which it begat and for a long time maintained between the Kings of England and the Dukes of Burgundy only by the great advantage from that Commodity did accrue to those People who at that time had the sole Manufacturing of Wooll in so much that they received the English Wooll at 6 d. per l. and returned the Cloth made thereof into England at 10 s. per yard whereas Wooll now worrh 10 d. per l. will not make Cloth worth above 6 s. per yard to the great inriching of the Burgundian State both in the advancement of the Revenues of their Dukes and in a full Employment of their People whereby the Merchants of England were occasioned as a People unwilling to be wholly dispriviledged of so great abenefit to transplant themselves with their Families in great numbers into Flanders from whence they held a constant Commerce with most parts of the World this Amity continued without intermission between England and Burgundy until King Edward the 3d. made his mighty Conquest over France and Scotland and during his residence in Flanders where he acquainting himself with the Flemings Affairs and obtaining then by his assistance in their War with France thereby gained a good opinion amongst them and he in order to draw over the Woollen Artificers into England represented to them the danger they were in by the bordering Wars with France and the peaceable condition of England and freedom of the People that are Subjects here propounds an Invitation for them to come over hither wherein he promises them the same Priviledges and Immunities with his own Subjects which they accepted and came over and brought their families with them and the said King most Royally performed those promises and by it also replanted many of his own Subjects in England who had been long setled in Flanders and in a short time by Act of Parliament prohibites the exportation of Wooll the advantage whereof hath been very great to this Nation thereby for some hundred years past by the vigilancy of the Government and the protection of its Laws in the careful execution thereof upon Offenders but so it is for some years past the French by their Diligence to enrich themselves upon us hath so far exceeded our Care to preserve our selves that its come to if not beyond a question who may have the greatest benefit of the Manufacture of English Wooll they who have no right to it or they to whom of right it doth belong That this is so will appear that not only Holland hath for a long time been Rivals with us in our Trade But France is like to be too hard for us also for the reasons before given besides our damage in putting that value on the French Fancies by giving them double the worth for the same Manufacture which we our selves make of our English Wooll so much have we been deceived in this matter that whereas in the time of the late War with the Dutch and French that French Druggets and other Stuffs not coming so freely from France some English broad Cloaths striped at 10 s. per yard were rent in 3 parts Viz Breadths and put in the form of French Druggets and each part sold for 8 s. per yard which makes that one yard come to 24 s. which as English Cloth was sold for 10 s and the like Fancy many have for Dutch Black Cloth if it have the name of Dutch tho' of our own Make this is real matter of Fact To return it 's aver'd that the Exportation of English and Irish Wooll is of a Dangerous and Destructive Consequence to the very Being of our Trade and to the riches and strength of this Kingdom and to his Majestie 's Customes notwithstanding the Objections produced against it with respect to the Graziers Advantage thereby supposing as before at large premised that 40 s. upon a Pack of Wooll was advanced for a year or two by Exportation yet other things would be lessned by it it being not to be denyed at the same time that the poore and laborious People can be employed as to have money to buy them Bread Beef much less Mutton the want of which must of necessity fall the price of all manner of Victuals and if we name only Mutton which is relative to our subject and that be sold but 6 d. per quarter the less which being 2 s. in the carkass which comes to 10 l. for 100 Sheep they producing a Pack of Wooll which at that rate is the value of the said Pack modestly computed But then for Beef and Corn if that be lesned proportionable it must be of course a greater damage to the Farmer and Grazier it being reckoned three times the value of Wooll throughout the Nation one with another And supposing there should be grown yearly in England Fourteen Hundred Thousand packs of Wooll one year with another And supposing that once in foure years the sheep were all kill'd Viz 25 yearly which 25 Sheep valued so low as 10 l. which is the value of the Wooll yearly shorn It may therefore prevaile upon us to beleive that Beef and all sorts of Corn must be of a far grater value than Mutton and consequently of Wooll because the greatest number of People by far are the poor and labourious People which consume Beef Bread and Bear and few of such do often buy Mutton or at at least any quantity proportionable to other provision and therefore whatever some others think that a Country can be inriched without the poor laborious People I am of another opinion For it 's matter of Fact that in England it self in those parts where the inhabitants are thin and the Countries not full of People that the Land in those parts will not yeild much above half the value as Land of the same goodness will yeild near Townes well Inhabited or Countries where Trade is good and if thus in England it 's much less in Ireland which
I think is a good Demonstration for the Clothier can no way possibly conceale his Markets being betrayed by his hastning his Cloth not then ready for the like Market by which meanes the Grazier raiseth the price of his Wooll and the Workfolks advance their wages the profit whereof goeth to the said Grazier and Farmer it being obvious such people do not lay up their money but lay out most for the Belly These things considered on the other hand it will manifestly appear that the Exportation of Wooll unmanufactured will not only be destructive to the Merchants and Clothiers Trade and the exposing the poor to distress for want of employment but confequently the Farmer and Grasier will not be able to pay his Rent For if it be so that whilest we have have some little Trade left there are such general complaints what may be expected if our Forreign Trade should be wholly taken away which is now in more danger by the French than it hath been this three hundred Years past and we seem to sleep and take no notice of it And then we may consider what price Wooll will bear when we some of us by our remissness and others wilfulness have lost our Trade by the circumventing practises of Forreiners and we our selves helping forward for fear they should not be able to do it alone and all this for a meere fancied and supposed profit for there was not more Art and Skill used by our Ancestors to bring home the workers at first to the Wooll and Prohibiting the Exportation thereof and setling the Manufacturing of it in England than is now us'd to Export the materials unmanufactured to Forreign Artificers and if by the means of that which is exported already Wooll is now made so cheap as it is a greater Exportation would make it yet cheaper supposing ten thousand Packs shipped into France which by their sort of working it and mixing it with Lining and their own course Wooll and thinness of their work goes as far there and makes as many yards in the whole as twenty thousand Packs if Manufactured here into more thick and substantial Cloth and Stuffs which Ten Thousand Packs if they were not Exported into France it would unavoydably follow that France would take of us the quantity of Twenty Thousand Packs in our Manufacture By all which it 's obvious that in time to come the Wooll in England will be much more cheaper than now it is because by the aforesaid meanes more Wooll will be Exported and less will of course be used in England and that little which will be Manufactured here can beare little or no price Forreigners making that themselves which we should furnish them with which if it be true as it 's generally asserted that Wooll is as cheap in France as in some parts of England at this time it 's but rationall to think it must be much cheaper hereafter when our Wooll dos encrease on our hands and our Manufacture decrease both in quantity and value For the better clearing of this point give me leave to insert one instance or two as matter of Fact That when Wooll was wholly Manufactured in England and very little if any at all Exported raw the price thereof for several yeares togeather continued betwixt 12 d. and 18 d. per l. weight and I verily beleive as much if not more Wooll was grown in England at that time Viz betwixt 20 and 30 yeares agoe then is now at this time the reason is plain from the great quantity of our Woollen Manufacture vended beyond Sea which was so considerable that it kept up the price of Wooll at home On the other hand in Ed. 3's time when all the Wooll was Exported Un-manufactured it was sold for 6 d. per pound as is before asserted by which it's manifest that the advancement of the price of Wooll consists in the consumtion and vent of our Manufacture freely beyond the Seas and not in the Exportation of our Wooll Un-manufactured Before I conclude give me leave to add here what Sr. Walter Rawlegh in his time presented to King James the first Viz that by meanes only of the Exportation of Cloth undyed and undressed was lost to the Kingdom above Foure Hundred Thousand Pounds yearly in the Workmanship which the Dressers and Dyers and other Artificers would have gained thereby besides the damage to the King in discouraging the Importation of Dying Stuffs which pay a considerable Custome Now if it was thus with England when the Wooll was made up into Cloth and that only for want of the Dressing and Dying it here so much loss came to this Kingdom thereby what must the loss be when 't is not Manufactured here at all but the Materials Exported raw without any manner of gain to any Artificer at home For if we first consider his Majestie 's loss next the Merchants and Clothiers after which must follow the Detriment to all other Persons depending on Trade there being such a connexion of Trades one to another that the damage of one harmes the rest and profit of one advances others while the whole is enlarged by the abounding of working and laborious people who supply the Farmer and Grazier with money with which he payes his Rent to the Nobility and Gentry and they again disperse it amongst Tradesmen by which circulation all degrees of Men are either employed or enriched or both and hence naturally comes content harmony and pleasure that one condition of Men take in the other the poor being by employment delivered from fear of want the Nobility Gentry Merchant and Trades-man being also secure from those inconveniencies the want of poor may naturally expose them to employment rationally is the strength of any People but Idleness brings Poverty Shame and Ruine which is a temptation to Theft and all manner of vilany certainly we are all concerned more or less in this rich treasure of Wooll because 't is that which sets more than half the hands of the Nation to work I may say three parts of the laborious and industrious employed about it considering that much of the Shipping is imployed in this affair and also many other Trades-men depending either for materials provision or other necessaries on the Clothing Trade and so from his Majestie down to the meanest all are more or less concerned the King mostly not only in that his People are by that most imployed and provided for but because so great Revenues comes directly into him upon the Trade of Importation occasioned thereby But before I conclude this first part of my discourse give me leave here to insert the advantage we do receive by one Pack of Wooll manufactured into Stockings being that which is obvious to the meanest capacity viz. a Pack and half of fleece Wooll worth 10 l. per. Pack making a Pack of comb'd worth 20 l. and one pound of such Wooll at that rate comes to 20 d. which will make two pair of Hose at 5 s. per pair or three pair at 3 s. and 4 d. or the slightest four pair at 2 s. and 6 d. per pair either sort the pound of Wooll is improved from 20 d. to 10 s. So that a Pack of such Wooll containing 240 pounds weight being so many 10 s. in Stockings comes to 120 l. out of which deduct 20 l. for the Wooll and there remains 100 l. Sterling gain'd only by the labour of spinning and knitting besides the dying leging packing and fitting it for Sea but there are some sorts of Stockings made about Norwich worth 7 or 8 s. per. pair made of fine Wooll and one pound will make 3 pair of such Hose so that such a Pack would be worth 200 l. and more and some sorts of Stuffs made in Norwich worth 6 l. and the Wooll not worth above 10 s. I shall in the next place Impartialy relate the substance of what hath been objected against me in my Opponents answer caled Reasons for a Limited Exportation of Wooll FINIS
A SUMMARY OF Certain PAPERS About WOOLL As the INTEREST OF ENGLAND Is Concerned in It. By W. C. London Printed for the Author Anno Dom. 1685 TO THE READER HAving wrote a Treatise about fifteen Yeares agoe and then presented to his Late and Present Majestie Intituled ENGLANDS INTEREST by the Improvement of the MANUFACTURE of WOOLL the same was pretended to be answered in Anno 1677 tho' it was not by a PAPER Intituled REASONS for a LIMITED EXPORTATION of WOOLL to which I made a REPLY in the same Yeare and there detected the weakness and insufficiency of that ANSWER But finding in my Attendance on a late Committee of the Honourable House of Commons appointed to consider a Bill depending before Them for the Explanation and better Execution of two Acts of Parliament made in his late Majesties Reign Prohibiting the Exportation of Wooll that ANSWER was urged by some against me supposing no REPLY was made to it I have for that and other Reasons now reprinted an ABSTRACT both of my first DISCOURSE my Opponents ANSWER and my REPLY thereunto werein I have endeavoured to remove that Gross mistake as if the hindering the EXPORTATION of WOOLL was the Cause of the low Price thereof the Cause of the Fall of RENTS and Value of LANDS the contrary whereof I do Assert and shall plainly Demonstrate the true Cause thereof Evincing that the hindering the EXPORTATION of WOOLL vvill Cause the recovery of our TRADE the raising the Price of WOOLL and Consequently of LANDS which is the Principal Drift and Design of the Following DISCOURSE I will for Arguments sake suppose that by a Liberty to Transport such a limited quanty of Wooll as is propounded the price of a Pack of rough Wooll for one or two Years were advanced from 8 l. to 10 l. which is 40 s. p. Pack more then 't is now and that the Price of a Pack of kembed Wooll were advanced from 20 l. proportionable for the latter is the sort of Wooll which is most usually exported to France a Pack of such kembed Wooll manufactured makes Stuffs and Stockings worth above 120 l. Ster as more particularly hereafter appears But if we Export our Wooll unkembed we give the French another advantage in mixing it with their own course Wooll and and fine spun Linnen for Druggats by which means one Pack of our unkembed Wooll Exported to France unmanufactured worth 10 l. as aforesaid prevents the working up of two Packs in England which I thus prove if the French had not our Wooll they must have our Woollen-Manufacture but the French by having and working our Wooll to supply themselves with Stuffs Druggats and Stockings that they have no occasion for those sorts of our Manufacture and by that means the more Wooll remains in England on the Graziers and Farmers hands and so the 40 s. per Pack advanced as supposed for one Year or two at first by such an Exportation would in a short time not only sink to nothing but the price of the Pack at 8 l. would dwindle and consume in like manner because the French making so much more Manufacture of a Pack than we do and refusing to accept of our Manufactures it cannot but naturally follow that our Wooll at home will grow cheaper and cheaper notwithstanding such a Limited Exportation Vpon enquiry it will appear that before such quantities of Wooll were Exported as lately have been the City of Exeter alone vended above the value of three hundred thousand pounds Ster every Year to France in Serges and Perpetuanys more then now that City does in any one Year And Dorcet and Hampshere almost depended upon the French Trade besides many parts in England especially Norwich for Stockings which Trade is almost lost Give me leave to name two Towns viz. South-hampton and Rumsey where within this 20 Years 30 Clothiers and upwards imployed in making Cloth Rashes most of which was sent to France and now there is not 10 Clothiers in both these Towns who make that Manufacture and those drive but very small Trades I am somewhat sure not a 3d. part if a 4th is now made in those Towns of what was formerly and that which is made is so much debased in the price that the Clothiers are discouraged from making it and all caused by the Transportation of Wooll and yet those Gentlemen that are Favourers of Transportation of Wooll are complaining of the low price of it which is the Natural Effect of that Transportation Now we will suppose to Illustrate this Argument further that there was only Kent in Fngland that produced Wooll and only Pickardy in France that did take of and consume our Manufacture of that Wooll and admit that there grows Yearly in Kent 6000 Packs of Wooll more or less Rumney-Marsb alone producing 1670 Packs by my Opponents computation and admit that all this were manufactured here and exported into Pickardy two thirds of it into Stockings and Stuffs and one third part in Cloth for that is the usual proportion suppose the Stockings and Stuffs sold here at 120 l. Ster per. pack and the Cloth at 50 l. per Pack comes to 579999 l. when the Wooll of those Packs at 10 l. per Pack comes to 60000 l. so that the County of Kent if those Packs were exported raw would loose 519999 l. which Instance I mention as a Plea to the Charge given by my Opponent pa. 5th wherein he reflects upon me for cruelty in detecting and prosecuting the exporters of Wooll he supposing that for want of Exportation of Wooll was lost in Rumney-Marsh 12320 l. which if it were true the comparison of this loss in Rumney-Marsh which by the computation is near one third part of the Wooll in Kent as before mentioned I say when the comparison is truely made I hope to be cleared by the Impartial Reader and the cruelty justly to be charged upon the said Exporter that shall hinder so much proffit to the Poor in Kent as well as to the Gentry in Kent upon which occasion I will use my Opponent's own words Viz. By which pray y' Judge how many Millions are Yearly lost through all England where is now the Cruelty I must confess this contention is not with any pleasure but meare necessity draws it from me Besides the loss of our Manufacture to France we of course comes to another and greater loss by the Exportation of our VVooll to France For the French by this meanes not only prevents the Importation of our Woollen-Manufacture but becomeing Rivals with us in the said Trade can undersel us in other more remote parts having this advantage of us if they paid double the Rate for Wooll that the English doth because the Workmanship is 5 times more then the vvorth of the Wooll and the French vvorking at half the vvages or less then the English AN ABSTRACT OF Englands Interest by the improvement of our Woollen Manufacture IF I should value the discouragements of appearing in publick in